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Retail career hopefuls look beyond the front line

Erin Scott poses August 13th, 2013 at a London, Ontario shopping mall where she is presently working.

Photograph by: Dave Chidley
, Postmedia News

Erin Scott has already figured out what’s next on her career path. She’s been working in retail since the age of 15, starting in grocery and moving on to fashion within two years. Today she’s a sales staff member for the Dynamite store in the White Oaks Mall in London, Ont.

While she didn’t initially think retail would be a career choice, “I liked it more than I expected, so I’ve decided to go into marketing.” Her first step was to register for a business marketing course at nearby Fanshawe College.

Adding some expertise in marketing will help her move beyond the sales floor some day, she says. “I wouldn’t want to stop at being a manager in a store. I want to go higher than that.”

That said, Scott appreciates that working on the front line is developing her interpersonal and communications skills. “That’s a huge part of building a career.”

What she likes best about retail is that it’s all about attitude. “If you stay positive, you have a good day.”

Retail is often not the career path of choice when people start working in a store, says Sean Sedlezky, manager, program design for Ted Rogers School of Retail Management at Ryerson University. But once they see the opportunities, they learn to appreciate the potential for growth.

“A lot of times they aren’t aware of the levels of responsibility and how lucrative it can be. [Senior-level] people in the big box and grocery stores can easily make the six-figure salary range,” he says.

A management or executive retail career path is especially suited for people with an entrepreneurial bent, Sedlezky adds. “You’re often managing your own business within a large organization and responsible for everything from logistics and shipping and marketing to staffing and training.”

For the most part, employers are looking for strong communications and people skills, along with a large dose of analytical expertise, he says. “You should definitely be developing your Excel skills.”

If you think that summer stint on the shop floor is no big deal, Sedlezky notes that in-store experience is always a big plus in the eyes of employers. “Floor skills help in learning to interact with customers, staff and the management team. That experience means when you are in a senior role, you can understand the actual day-to-day demands and how to deal with them, rather than just looking at numbers.”

A vast majority of the students in Ryerson’s four-year-degree program work in retail stores, which could explain why the school reports a 100% hiring rate within two years of graduation.

Every effort is made to promote from within for retailers like Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), says Julie Robb, manager of recruitment and training in Vancouver. “Our CEO was an internal hire, as well as two chief officers. One of them started out as a merchandise assistant and moved up. It’s a terrific success story.”

There are ample opportunities for store staff to move into more senior roles, ranging from team leader and learning coordinator to store manager and administration. One popular means of showing aptitude for a head office role is to step into a contract position. “These offer a lot of opportunity for development and provide a person with experience should a permanent position open up in future,” Robb says.

Since MEC’s head office is relatively flat in terms of hierarchy, lateral moves between departments are common for people wanting to extend their skills. Key areas of focus include communications and marketing, strategic planning, social media and information technology (IT). “IT is particularly important on the e-commerce side,” Robb says.

MEC also offers a number of career development, coaching and leadership training programs to deepen employees’ skills and build competencies. It also has a tuition reimbursement program for both full- and part-time employees who have been with the company one year.

Cathy Smith, chief human resources officer, says the frontline staff that make the management grade and beyond are typically those that are committed to the company values, are passionate about their work, and demonstrate initiative. “These people turn out to be wonderful internal hires because they do an exceptional job.”

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